Gender in Sámi Shamanism

Shamans in Norway draw on historical narratives to shape contemporary understandings of gender, revealing how religion and culture are embedded in social and gendered realities. The chapter argues that religion serves as a key mechanism for producing and enacting gender stereotypes, and by examining these practices, it localizes abstract religious concepts within concrete social contexts.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Religion is a core unit in terms of how gender stereotypes are produced and realized. By exploring how shamans in Norway use the past to construct narratives of gender in the present, my presentation in this chapter represents an attempt to localize religion and culture in a social and gendered reality.